Letters From OC Weekly Readers

SCARIEST MISSING PERSONSYou missed the opportunity to include Mike Schroeder [“Crypt From the Headlines,” Oct. 29]. Both my phones received prerecorded calls from him today, and anyone he promotes, I reject.

OC Watchout, via ocweekly.com

Regarding Suzie Graf being on this list: It seems to me this is misplaced. You start by telling of Graf’s misdeeds and end by saying that she has not, in this case, committed any crimes (at least, so far as you are aware). Until you can prove she has returned to her old ways, don’t you think she should be removed from this list or at least apologized to? Most all of us are guilty of some wrongdoing in our past, but that doesn’t mean we are guilty of it in the present.

Jan, Signal Hill, via ocweekly.com

How could you have left off Octomom?

Jane, Huntington Beach, via ocweekly.com

POWERFUL PLANTPeople really need to get the facts straight [Nick Schou’s “The Pot Prop,” Oct. 22]. How many people do you think die each year because they overdosed on pot? Zero. Know how many people die each year because of drinking or from drugs doctors have prescribed? Hundreds of thousands of people. Weed is all-natural and helps so many people with different problems. We live in a free country. Shouldn’t we be free to smoke the plant God made for us?

Mike, via ocweekly.com

MUSICAL BEST OF FAIL?First, I thank you for being one of the few media forums that attempt to draw attention to the underbelly of culture in what would otherwise be a seemingly cultureless county. The ever-repaving, ever-rebuilding, ever-regulated county we all live in is deceptively vapid, but lying beneath this terra-cotta wonderland is a burgeoning community of art and progressive thought. Though still in its young-adulthood, I believe in time this community will flourish (no matter how many reality shows and quasi-celebrities may attempt to thwart our efforts).

In acknowledging these possibilities as well as these dilemmas, you have taken on a responsibility to be a public avenue for artists to make their way toward recognition. You have accepted the role of acting as an eye for the people, so that no deserving art goes camouflaged or unnoticed. You have taken a position of trust, and it is your role to never betray it.

I write to you because this past Best of OC issue [Oct. 15] curdled my blood. Not because many of those selected are undeserving of recognition, but because so many artists were denied their due. There are many wonderful artists in Orange County right now whose works aren’t merely good by local standards, but great even when examined under a magnifying glass. Yet you insist on regurgitating artists out of your 1995 issues. Perhaps they would be better fits for more appropriate awards, i.e., Best Band Now Raising a Family or Best Band You’ve Forgotten About. How is it bands such as the Offspring and the Vandals still occupy your pages when so many great artists have blossomed since the last time anyone cared about these relics? Are we still clinging to our last few moments of OC fame, or can we look forward? Any condescending dimwit who has never set foot inside Orange County could have written that last article. Once again, there was an opportunity for you to feature new bands that are equally, if not more, deserving but unequally favored, and once again, you have utterly failed us all.

So, I thought I would take the time to act as a liaison for these artists who, for whatever reason, you failed to acknowledge. Perhaps you might pause your Sony Discman for a moment to explore what’s actually going on in Orange County circa 2010: Toy Robots, Cosmonauts, California Condors, Summer Darling, Light Music, May McDonough, Moostache, Kiev, We Are the Pilots, Melanoid, Tyranis, I Hate You Just Kidding, Preachers Sons, Feeding People, Pacific Hurt, Honeypie, Francisco the Man, Canyons, Milo Fairweather, Max and the Moon, the Union Line, Yellow Red Sparks, Warpaint—need I go on? These are bands that deserve your attention, but some lack the means or the connections to easily gain clout. The problem is you are out of touch with the very community you are supposed to be illuminating. Your lack of commitment to remain tethered to what’s current isn’t just disappointing, it’s lazy. Honestly, I can’t be the only one who doesn’t want to put up with this mindless pap. If OC Weekly has the integrity to print this in its next issue, I say this to the readers: Please, if you are with me, I invite you to—no, I insist you—speak up. You have a voice, and that voice is within this column.